By Ryan Jones
Sep 01, 2004
Israelis were treated to a rude awakening, a jolt back to reality Tuesday, after most the country had been experiencing months of relatively terror-free life. Sixteen people were slaughtered by “Palestinian” homicide bombers while riding public buses in the Negev town of Beersheva.
Among the dead was a three-year-old boy, whose critically wounded mother likely still does not know that she will never again hold her precious child in her arms - that she will never have the opportunity to train and nurture her son.
Is this scene of tragedy, and the many others that accompanied it Tuesday, enough to rekindle outrage among Israelis and their Western allies? Probably not.
That the Palestinian Arabs are a foe bent on the physical destruction of the Jewish people in the Middle East no longer seems to register with most Israelis. At least, not deeply enough for them to rise up and effectively defend themselves.
One of two things is happening to the majority of Israelis Jews. Either they are growing numb to the murderous campaign being directed against their people, or they are buying into the international perception that “Palestinian” terrorism is a justified response to Israeli “military aggression” and “occupation.”
The world insists there is no difference between the three-year-old boy killed Tuesday while riding a bus, and the teenage Palestinian Arab who is killed while taking part in an act of violence against IDF soldiers.
But the key to the outrage that is so badly needed is being left out of that equation.
When IDF soldiers enter “Palestinian” towns and villages, they do so with the express purpose of finding and neutralizing known terrorists – men and women who have openly declared war against the Jewish people.
That individuals outside the scope of the IDF’s mission are sometimes killed during these operations is a sad reality of war – a war initiated by the “Palestinians.” And that the IDF is forced to hunt down terrorists in urban settings and put uninvolved civilians at risk is, according to the Geneva Convention, the sole responsibility of the terrorists, not the IDF.
Even so Israel always, without exception, apologizes for and expresses regret over the unintended taking of a life.
In stark contrast, when a Palestinian Arab killer enters an Israeli city, he/she does so with the aim of murdering as many Jewish men, women and children as possible. It doesn’t matter who those men, women and children are, so long as they are Jews.
And when the grisly act is done, far from expressing remorse or sorrow, the Palestinian Arab public breaks out in celebration over the spilling of Jewish blood.
Such was the case Tuesday evening after the Beersheva massacre, when residents of PA-controlled towns in Judea, Samaria and Gaza poured into the streets in jubilation as Arabic television broadcasts reported the “heroic” mass murder of more Israelis.
Can anyone imagine the local and international outrage that would ensue if Israel’s Channel 2 News gleefully reported the killing of tens of Palestinian Arabs during a clash with IDF troops? Or if Israelis responded to that broadcast by dancing in the streets, passing out candies and firing their weapons into the air?
That this is a common practice among the Arabs, however, is all but ignored.
It is past time to rekindle the kind of outrage this reality demands. It is time for Israelis to express true outrage over the slaughter of their sons and daughters. It is time for Israel’s friends to express outrage that their own governments would pressure Israel into placating this enemy.
And it is time to express a little bit of outrage over the fact that international (primarily American) pressure has resulted in Israel not eliminating the threat to its citizens, but instead planning a retreat in the face of unrelenting “Palestinian” terror.
That Israel’s leaders chose to bow to that pressure instead of doing what was best for their people is something they will one day answer for. But the blood of those Jews so mercilessly killed will be equally required of the nations that put Israel in this position.
There will be a reckoning. God will require an accounting for the innocent blood of three-year-old Aviel Atash, and the list of those responsible will include the Bush administration for its pressuring Israel to retreat instead of fight.
That this Christian president would put his nation in such a position vis-à-vis the Almighty should spark outrage in all bible believing Americans.